The FFFSR (furniture and furnishings fire safety regulations) apply to domestic upholstery.  They have requirements for fabrics and fillings that manufacturers have to meet to comply with fire safety of domestic products

The RRFSO (Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order) applies to non domestic settings.  It’s legislation that means that all non-domestic settings should be safe.  A responsible person should carry out a fire risk assessment on a building (it includes things like fire extinguishers and fire alarms).  It should also include the contents of the building – of which furnishings are a part.  It’s through that risk assessment that the owner should be specifying what they want in terms of fire safety. 

There are two ways that you can achieve an FR fabric.  You can apply a coating to a fabric which will add a level of FR protection or you can use a fabric woven with inherently flame retardant yarns.

If you are coating for upholstery the coating will normally be applied to the reverse of the fabric.  If you are coating for curtains the fabric will normally be submerged into a chemical mixture.

It’s important to distinguish between domestic or non domestic.

For domestic settings it’s the manufacturer of the product who’s mostly responsible for ensuring it’s fire safe.

On the non domestic setting the onus is on the owner of the building or the person responsible for the building to ensure the premises and its contents are safe

FR fabrics are designed to resist ignition -they don’t immediately start to burn when they’re exposed to a fire source.  That gives you time to notice there’s a fire and evacuate the premises before the fire poses a threat.